Sequential's regular list of links relating to comics in Canada. This time out, a very TCAF-heavy post in honour of the Festival currently running in Toronto. I know this seems kind of Toronto-centric, but keep in mind the festival is full of people and publishers (New Reliable, Conundrum) from other provinces and from around the world. Plus, there are a ton of non-artists attending the festival, including Deb Aoki, Bart Beaty, Jeet Heer, Dan Nadel, Douglas Wolk, and Bill Kartalopoulos. For a full list of events, go to TCAF Programming.

Item: At the same time as the regular festival signings and artist/publisher tables, there is an academic conference going on at TCAF, taking place in a series of rooms in the Reference Library ("Another New Narrative"). Organized by U of T's Andrew Lesk, the schedule was unavailable at press time.

Item: One of the few emails Sequential received from individual artists appearing at the festival was from Miriam Libicki. Sunday afternoon from 4:30-5:00, in learning centre 2 at the Reference Library: "Miriam Libicki brings her innovative comics reading/slideshow to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! Join the acclaimed autobiographical cartoonist as she dramatically reads from her Israeli Army memoirs, as well as her provocative drawn essays Towards a Hot Jew, Ceasefire, and Jewish Memoir Goes Pow! Zap! Oy! In between, Miriam will discuss her influences, what led her to choose comics as a format, why she started the jobnik! series, her self-publishing experience and how her work has been received thus far (in Israel and elsewhere)."

Item: May is Ontario Graphic Novel Month, according to Whazamo, a website run by Open Book Toronto and the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario. The site features video and features about Ontario comics and Owl Magazine's C-Ton is the cartoonist in residence.

Item: It's worth noting that, at the same time the Wright Awards are happening at the AGO (7 PM Saturday), there is an event called "Comics Are Totally Gay" at Fire On The East Side Bar & Restaurant, 6 Gloucester Street, 4 blocks south of Toronto Reference Library.

Item: Speaking of which, don't forget the Wright Awards, Saturday at 7pm at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Item: Bart Beaty previews the major European talents who will be at TCAF. Beaty will be talking about Eurocomics and interviewing several artists all weekend.

Item: Those National Post profiles of TCAF guests just keep on coming.

Item: More than anything, this edition of TCAF is really a celebration of Drawn and Quarterly's 20th Anniversary. They have a big slate of beautifully impressive major books out for Spring, and the festival programming is chock-a-block of D+Q artists. The Globe and Mail's Kenton Smith does a good job of summing up the history and impact of D+Q over the last 20 years, with a few choice interviews.